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DOGE hits home - a personal story [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-27
Those crooks at DOGE have fouled up the employment of my close relative — who is not even a federal employee!
The University of Washington will freeze hiring of non-essential staff and faculty and take other steps to cut costs amid uncertainty about state and federal funding. While the university’s financial position is good, “unprecedented and rapid policy changes at the federal level” have upped the risk of funding cuts. — Seattle Times, 11 March 2025.
My relative has a Masters Degree, and has been a valued contributor to a large department at the University since being hired last year. The supervisors had already sought a contract extension and a permanent position — but that was thrown out because of the university’s budget hawks (who really can’t be blamed for Trump’s and Musk’s chaotic leadership).
That’s the billionaire’s point, isn’t it? Let everyone in the public sector be fearful about job security. Why? For one reason — because they didn’t choose to work for peanuts to help transfer cash into some billionaire’s pockets. If you aren’t helping to generate profits — you aren’t fit to feel confident about your future employment — no matter how valuable you are to the institution that employs you.
But there’s another foul motivation behind the Trump/Musk cluster-fart of a government. Fear. DOGE doesn’t like it when highly intelligent people make it their mission and calling to help others achieve their goals. They don’t want average people to get a leg up from other average people. They want each individual to succeed or fail on their own — with no help from their neighbors. Wasn’t that the oath of John Galt (Ayn Rand)?
I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine. -Ayn Rand, 1959
Even billionaires feel fear when they realize that “power to the people” is just a bit of organizing away. They realize that we are all better off when we cooperate and we are all worse off when we resent and disrespect our neighbors.
Just today, on Gavin Newsom’s podcast (at the 52:31 timestamp) — he completely obliterated the notion that individualism (i.e. the “Lone Star” spirit of Texas) creates more success than cooperation (e.g., California’s “Inclusiveness” mindset, as embodied in Governor Newsom’s Executive Order N-16-22). Here are some of the statistics (paraphrased) from the podcast:
We dominate in every innovative category. You talk about the future of abundance in the context of invention … that’s California!
18% of the world’s R&D is in this state. ...
71% of America’s GDP comes from blue counties. We’re the economic engine of the USA.
In Florida and Texas, they tax their poorest more than we tax our richest in California.
And speaking of Texas, Texas takes $71.1 billion of federal money from taxpayers, California gives $81.3 billion. We’re subsidizing red states while they promote tax cuts for billionaires and cut basic programs like free school lunch.
18% of the world's research and development is happening in California. We have more scientists, engineers and Nobel laureates than any other state. No other state comes close.
If I may, I’d like to suggest that every DK contributor and consumer should write a short blog (on the DK platform) each time a close friend or relative loses a job (federal or otherwise) due to Trump’s and Musk’s malfeasance.
If we get enough of them, it might motivate Rachel Maddow to send someone from her staff to write a segment for her show about the statistics and the real-life pain of their rotten policies.
Perhaps if each blogger would add the tag “personalstory” at the bottom of the form, before you hit “publish”. That would make it easier for the researchers to find all the applicable stories.
With cooperation, we can move the country’s voters back to the left — where they belong!
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